Black Is Beautiful II

Restarting the Black Is Beautiful thread from the previous forum. Starting out with a revised version of the resource lists from the other thread. Dead links pruned and new stuff added. Separated things out into categories which also includes a "Vendor" category for some who have a sizable number of products (as opposed to listing them individually). I'll try my best to keep this updated and certainly let me know if you think things should be reorganized. For instance, I specifically added afrocentric hairstyles as opposed to everything that could validly work but if people want more in the list then that's no problem. I also eventually plan to alphabetize things.

In your opinion, does darker skin need more lights to stand out more times than not? I notice your girl POPS. Many times my characters faces are barely shown

I don't think so, really.. I actually added a good deal of grey to the diffuse color 'cause the lights were making her a bit too light for my taste.. it's the same basic light setup I use for almost everything unless it's a really complicated scene.. sometimes I will start with it and drop the fill light in favor of uber environment if I think the picture needs AO to look right, in this case it didn't.

I make a distance light and apply active viewport settings from my main camera, I look through that new light and move it slightly to a side and up (which side determined by where the face is, try to position it so it'll get the glint in the eyes) I set that light to 90-100% intensity and cast shadows. I make another distance light off the main camera and move that one down and to the other side to be a fill light, it can be left off if you want to use a low intensity uber environment light instead, I set it at 20-30% and not casting shadows. (if I do uber environment instead I use the plain white one at like 30-50%, have to test render that to get the intensity right, doesn't seem to be a perfect number). The third light I look through the "back" camera and create a distance light with those settings, then I rotate it very slightly to the side opposite the main light. That's the rim light, I usually turn that one up to at least 150%, I had it at 200% for this last render and I've gone as high as 500% on it for special effects like if you use a coloured light.) I turn shadows on for that one too, though have to be careful with what is behind the character, I had to turn off shadow casting for the green backdrop thing so it didn't block the rim highlights. I find it a great help to click off visibility of the main and fill lights (the little eyeballs in the scene tab) temporarily after adding the rim light to check how it's hitting the edges, saves a lot of test rendering.

A number of other posts also noted that the culprit tends to be specularity settings as opposed to the actual lighting in the scene. Darker skinned characters tend to need the specularity on their skin turned up a little more or a dedicated spec light should be added to the scene.

Oh Hi Everyone its good to be back and I'm still waiting on Neftis3D to release his Beautiful Black Hair styles, but I'm missing all the input that we had on our other postings on the Old forum.......But I have been playin with the Basic Genesis figure and Nata and Chibi models....OMG!!! I removed the images because they were HUGE!!!!!!!!! BFN......
Tryin for another smaller picture 900x900 was still to big......Whoo Ooo looks like 450x450 it is!!!

Nice to see this thread back. Let see if I can post an image. I started out with Betomelo's Bruuna and tweaked the morph a bit. The texture is Jazz by Reciecup and hair is Portia by AprilYSH. The top is a freebie by Lully and Cybrea.

Well we were on page 4 of the Commons, so does this mean we have moved down the forum or Up??? This is a trial posting.......OK so now we are on page 8. The only thing I'm waiting at the moment for is Neftis3D Black hair styles.........8-/ :roll: :roll:

OK so the forum is back again, :-) was trying to find a 'we are not worthy' smiley but they don't have one available.......Thank You for this fantastic share SnowSultan, already got a render brewing.......We are now on flippin page 11 now......'Arrhhh'

You're very welcome! Please read the Readme for more information on using her when you have time, and remember like any MOR, the shape looks a lot better when it's on a figure with clothing and hair. It may look a little strange on a nude figure, but this really is the same shape I use in my renders. :)

"Thank You for this fantastic share SnowSultan, already got a render brewing…....We are now on flippin page 11 now…...‘Arrhhh’"

Awesome, I look forward to seeing it! And yeah, I really wish these old threads would get bumped like the new ones are now. No one's ever going to find us back here this way, and Zamuel's list of resources is amazing.

And yeah, I really wish these old threads would get bumped like the new ones are now. No one's ever going to find us back here this way, and Zamuel's list of resources is amazing.

Thanks, but a lot of the credit is for those who made the original list(s) and the vendors for making the products. Doesn't help that the forum update thing is really fickle. Didn't even know there were new posts. I find this thread the same way I found it on the previous forum when it dropped off by doing a forum search for the word "Africa".

A public version of Smacky's morph? Interesting. Since you're here, you might want to stick your head in on RDNA's 1.99 sale since they have some fantasy scenery stuff. Might be helpful for Scott Livingston as well. Hmm...bookmarked his site so I might link him to this new thread. EDIT: Or I would have if there was an email address...

Here's Smacky not so much as a warrior as a sorceress - hope you're not too disappointed, I stopped fiddling with the lighting cause I just made it worse :) I'm having so much fun with her, need to try out some other textures too. Thanks again Snow!

@ Angel: Thank you very much, you did a good job! :D It's interesting, she looks a bit Indian to me in your image. Textures can make a huge difference in how a character looks. I saw it on your dA page and I will link to it and your gallery soon. :) Can I send an image to your email address (if I can have it)? I lightened your render a little because it's very dark for me, and I'd like to see if it looks too bright to you.

@ Kalypso: Oh wow, of course I'm not disappointed, it looks terrific! :) Do you have a deviantArt page where I can favorite that image too? I set up a folder for any Smacky-related renders by other users. ;)

"Thanks, but a lot of the credit is for those who made the original list(s) and the vendors for making the products"

True, but your list is really useful and so definitive. I don't even know half of half of the items on there, will have to take a look myself. ;) Will also take a look at RDNA's sale, although I already have a ton of environments from DAZ I haven't gotten around to using yet, lol.

Here's Smacky not so much as a warrior as a sorceress - hope you're not too disappointed, I stopped fiddling with the lighting cause I just made it worse :) I'm having so much fun with her, need to try out some other textures too. Thanks again Snow!

Kalypso this is a fantastic render, Love the outfit and jewels. Wicked.....

Added a link to the archive of the original thread. Need to make some more updates but I've been busy with some stuff. In the meantime, one key piece of info I didn't copy over that needs to be here is suggestions and tips for render and lighting settings for darker skinned characters. If people could post what they use, that would be helpful.

The Black is Beautiful thread has always been one of my favourites. It's been fun seeing everyone's renders. I'm glad it's back here. :-)
Thanks ZamuelNow for restarting the thread and copying over the links, to SnowSultan for the freebie and everyone else who's contributed links and tips. Lovely renders, everyone.

Here's one I had posted way back close to the beginning of the original thread. I'm linking to it in my Rendo gallery instead because there are some settings in the description that people may find useful.

Added a link to the archive of the original thread. Need to make some more updates but I've been busy with some stuff. In the meantime, one key piece of info I didn't copy over that needs to be here is suggestions and tips for render and lighting settings for darker skinned characters. If people could post what they use, that would be helpful.

Unfortunately you are not able to log in and see the various images that were posted. Never mind maybe they will fix that link at a later date....

Sorry, I haven't had a chance to check this thread in a few days. Cute render Angel! What kind of lighting are you using? It might be a little strong or oversaturated, try using white lighting at 80-90%% and see if it helps any.

Very nice render KerWar! The Mil Cat always looks good as an Abyssinian. :)

I really wish this thread would get bumped like all the others are now though!

Sorry, I haven't had a chance to check this thread in a few days. Cute render Angel! What kind of lighting are you using? It might be a little strong or oversaturated, try using white lighting at 80-90%% and see if it helps any.

Very nice render KerWar! The Mil Cat always looks good as an Abyssinian. :)

I really wish this thread would get bumped like all the others are now though!

You and me both, I'm not even going to look and see what page we are on.....

Something I did with Leena International Generations after I GenX'd some of her -- I wound up having to pick and choose, because there's just So. Much. Leena. (Which is great, don't get me wrong.) And I just wanted to do a simple family portrait style render like some I suffered through ... er, some that I was in when I was younger. Except for the whole not being a female thing, of course.

"Family Portrait": from left to right, Leena herself, her mother Alice (for the sake of argument), her sister Cassie (a She-Freak variant that needed a bit of tweaking and then some, because SF4 doesn't come through GenX at all, as far as I can tell), and seated on the floor, her daughter Noelle. And yes ... yes, she does look too young to have a daughter that age. It's the miracle of pseudophotography!

OK vwrangler what happened too Alice and Noelle's eyes?, they make the family portrait look a little eerie..

I wound up having to open the .daz file to take a look because I didn't remember doing anything to Alice's eyes until I looked more closely at her. I used the gold colored eyes on her (Leena International and Generations come with an impressive range of eye colors and options), because I liked the way they looked. And then I did the same thing for Noelle, so that she'd have more of a resemblance to her grandmother. Which seems to have worked, judging from your reaction!

Originally, I was going to use the heterochromia eyes for Noelle, but they looked even more odd than the gold eyes.

(Side note: every time I run across the Axel/Leena International Generations bundle, it makes me think of the old soap opera "Generations", for some reason ... although, that would kind of explain Axel International Generations Tony ....)

OK vwrangler what happened too Alice and Noelle's eyes?, they make the family portrait look a little eerie..

I wound up having to open the .daz file to take a look because I didn't remember doing anything to Alice's eyes until I looked more closely at her. I used the gold colored eyes on her (Leena International and Generations come with an impressive range of eye colors and options), because I liked the way they looked. And then I did the same thing for Noelle, so that she'd have more of a resemblance to her grandmother. Which seems to have worked, judging from your reaction!

Originally, I was going to use the heterochromia eyes for Noelle, but they looked even more odd than the gold eyes.

(Side note: every time I run across the Axel/Leena International Generations bundle, it makes me think of the old soap opera "Generations", for some reason ... although, that would kind of explain Axel International Generations Tony ....)

I did wonder if the eyes could have been a different colour which would explain the appearance, had I been able to have a closer look at the image as we were able too on the OLD FORUM I would have seen this for myself.......(not having a go at you vwrangler, just a little fed up of how long this is taking to correct the DAZ website)